Top international school’s German partners tell different story in wake of ruling that will close business college
- German commerce group says Education Bureau’s belief it was misled can be attributed to contradictory information from school supervisor
- School fires back that all information provided in latest investigation was truthful
A top Hong Kong international school which earlier this week agreed to close a business college ruled illegal by the Education Bureau is now facing pushback from the German commerce group that helps them run it.
Key to the debate between the partners is whether information supplied to the bureau by the current school supervisor was accurate as well as the very definition of “secondary education”, which the business group said had different parameters in Germany.
A March 9 ruling by the Education Bureau on the college operated by German Swiss International School (GSIS) marked an about face from a year ago, when the bureau said the programmes were legal as they were conducted solely at a secondary education level.
But last week, the bureau said it had discovered the college was admitting pupils older than 20 years of age, some of whom already held bachelor degrees.
In its letter ordering GSIS to shut down the college, a decision affecting about 25 students who were still a year away from graduating, the bureau said the school had never registered under the Education Ordinance to provide postsecondary education.